SWAP: Waging War Against Urban Blight

The politics of waste permeate our society. The Voice everywhere urges us to buy, use, consume and as we consume, discard.

Waste is one of the trappings of an affluent society, a society which rarely considers supplies and resources are not unlimited, thrift is preferable to volume, recycling an immutable law in our environment, and that using what we've got is using wisely.

Although not precisely formulated, these are some of the larger issues that the Providence-based Stop Wasting Abandoned Property (SWAP) program is trying to resolve.

Basically, the three year old project arranges buyers for houses that have been abandoned by their owners; most were rental properties, indicative of the absentee landlord syndrome afflicting most of our cities.

The houses are not in good shape. Most have fallen prey to vandals and fires with plumbing stripped, windows broken and other abuses making it too heavy an investment for a landlord

The affirmation of community infuses these neighborhoods over and above the increased tax base for the city (close to $1 million more since 1976), the dramatic decrease in building abandonments (much less than the former 400 per year figure), and the stabilization of property values (the retention of lower income groups in the area guards against zealous developers who might squeeze out the neighborhoods with unaffordable projects and skyrocketing property values).

It's fairly simple—owning and rebuilding your own home, and living close by to others who share the same experience can do nothing less than create bonds that run the gamut from political solidarity to friendship.

SWAP is the active catalyst in this process. From their inception in September, 1976, they have sold 160 houses (with a couple more most likely in the process right now). Through SWAP, an interested person can first check over the 30-40 house listing—changing day to day—available in their 434 Pine Street office. Most prospective buyers find houses to their liking although abandoned houses not on the list can be researched by the staff. SWAP staffers conduct tours through these abandoned houses allowing the person to see exactly what's in store (Getz Obstfeld, Executive Director, warns people should be prepared to devote at least a year to the house's restoration—and wear a hard hat to bed); staffers also point out any special considerations concerning the house.

Titles to the houses have usually been prepared and cleared by SWAP before listed; staffers will assist buyers in the event of an uncleared title to a house. Prices are listed for each house and SWAP will act as a mediator in price negotiations should any bargaining become involved. Most important is the program's acceptance by the banks—after they had seen, firsthand, what "sweat equity" could accomplish. SWAP will put the buyer in touch with loan associations as well as mediating for Community Development Grants from the city.

Houses range from $0-$5000 with a few above that mark. Renovation costs can be inhibiting but abatement of unpaid back taxes, incentive grants, tax assessments frozen for five years at the true value of the property at time of purchase, home improvement loans, and the availability of bank money can offset or defray these costs. Again, it boils down to time, skill, and commitment.

The SWAP program itself grew out of the same kind of pioneering energy. In 1975, Obstfeld, an organizer with People Acting through Community Effort (PACE), together with Berta Philips, a "block club" member on Ontario St. in Providence, helped to reclaim a vacant house on the street. That first house, acquired from its hesitant landlord for $500 and renovated with $4000 in salvage materials and the buyer's own labor, was the ground-breaking event for a road that lead through reversals of neighborhood attitudes and policy. This grassroots movement proceeded on a one-by-one basis. Obstfeld notes, "We went from block club to block club convincing them of the value of the houses, and of fixing them instead of tearing them down, and contacting the owners and negotiating with them and finding a buyer within our own circles." 

PACE convinced neighborhoods to do a complete about-face—block club leaders went to Mayor Cianci convincing him to save houses. Money allocated to combat Fourth of July arson-related burnings instead went to boarding up windows. Turning the challenge back on the organizers, the mayor agreed to their proposals on the condition they would find buyers for the run-down buildings. Point and counter point. The organizers gave the nod if the mayor committed incentives from the city's Community Development Grants for people to buy the houses. Both sides were saying yes all over, and the prenatal SWAP team went out to work—soon, "it became too much." In September, 1976 they formed a board of directors and officially became SWAP, independent of PACE, devoted to saving abandoned property.

Since then, money, projects and opportunities have expanded for the urban homesteaders. Their Co-op is an association of homestead members who pool their energy for common needs. As a lobbying force, the group contacted legislators, attended public hearings and council meetings to remove back taxes unpaid by the previous owners—they were successful, and ever since the Providence City Council approved the ordinance on June 6, 40 homesteaders have applied to have the burden lifted. 

The co-operative tool bank provides expensive equipment to all its members. Donald Lopes, Chairperson of the Homesteader's Co-op explains the cooperative, "is simply homesteaders joining together to make repairing a condemned building simpler and easier. The Co-op is the place where new homesteaders can benefit from the experience of people already fixing up houses, and where everyone can work together to solve common concerns."The cooperative mode extends into the surrounding world as well. As a practical example and symbolic gesture, SWAP set up a Model House Committee to restore a house for its new office and thus aid in the revitalization of the entire Pine Street area.

In the words of S.E. Cameron, Chairperson of the committee: "We decided that with a commitment of public funds and energies for a symbolic restoration, we could spark the revitalization of the rest of the street by private families and institutions...the largest, most dilapidated and visible abandoned building on the street" was chosen. A grant from Community Development, labor in the form of on-site training in carpentry, electricity, and sheet metal from Central Vocational High School, and a Rhode Island Historic Preservation grant put the work in progress.

Indeed SWAP's success and expertise in dealing with a red tape, pervasively bureaucratic world and translating those dealings into practical results satisfying people is partly due to the very absence of bureaucracy in their own organization. SWAP chairperson John Paccasassi explains, "the fact that it's a neighborhood-based project has always been our strongest feature...the people are always in touch with what we're doing doin and we're in touch with what they want and need."  

And so a program that began strictly to save old houses and succeeded in channeling money and energy to the task, now finds itself endeared to some vaguely defined cultural restoration. Whatever it is, it works. Obstfeld says, "because we encourage sweat equity, that lowers the cost so that lower and moderate-income people can afford to buy the houses-that's so important when we're talking about neighborhoods in Providence composed mostly of lower and moderate-income people. You want to keep that same kind of economic mix-those are the people who want to buy houses but can't afford to in the regular market."  

The majority of these committed people are young families buying their first home; the ethnic mix is surprisingly homogeneous-the 1979 annual report shows 51 white, 42 black, 46 Hispanic, and three racially mixed families comprising the home owners. Aside from the personal, more intangible kinds of commitment inherent in such an undertaking of this sort, SWAP's only requirement is that the owner occupy the house. If the homesteader receives a Community Development Grant, the time commitment is 18 months; eligibility for an abatement on back taxes requires a one year commitment. Obstfeld notes that, "nobody ends up moving -where else could they find a house for that kind of money?"  

Although most of these houses are 70 to 100 years old and cannot meet the current stringent energy efficiency requirements, they do have the advantage of craftsmanship. The old houses were solidly built-unlike some of their modern counterparts which quiver and tremble if looked at cross-eyed. Ample structure exists in these buildings and to bring them up to date, SWAP recommends homesteaders install storm windows, insulate the attic with 9-12" of insulation, and buy a new, efficient heating system. In some ways the vandals have done a service removing out-dated equipment, obviating the temptation to keep an old, crusty oil furnace, for example.

There is much interest in solar equipment. However, the pioneering spirit is thwarted here in at least one way: the Department of Energy provides $400 grants for the installation of solar hot water heaters, but the systems must be "pre-approved" and cost from $1200-$2500. A homemade unit (a fairly simple construction) could easily be built with that $400. DOE's policy remains a debatable one since it targets the grants, through price exclusion, toward middle income groups who can afford the devices. The government will have to catch some of this pioneering fever.

City pioneering is happening on many levels, along with economic redevelopment, there are indications that the gasoline fiasco, high taxes, long commuting times, and lack of excitement is slowing the trend of escape to the suburbs. An infusion of young professional people has already occurred in Chicago, New York, and other major cities. This group is settling in the areas that were the poorer sections of town; the effect is revitalization along with a concurrent rise in property values.

Providence, as a smaller city, has yet experienced that kind of movement. But the city is growing, and in five or 10 years homesteaders will most likely be able to confirm their wise investment. Paccasassi states, "We're the vanguard; suburbia will lose its-attractiveness if the situation continues...the days of houses left to rot in Providence are just about over."

In the end, SWAP is helping to create a solidarity that is strengthening the older, misused parts of the city into communities of people with similar goals and things to learn. The pride involved and the value placed on "working it yourself" becomes something not easily measured in monetary terms.